Playing in the Past

So recently I have been spending some time thinking about my life. Okay, well this really is nothing new for me. We all think about our lives on a regular basis but sometimes those thoughts lead to realizations or something along those lines. Anyway I have been thinking about some of the things I really enjoyed doing growing up and why they got lost along the way and the possibility of reintroduction in my current life.

What things you ask? Well there were two passions in my life growing up that played an important role of shaping whom I am today. The first one that came into my life was acting. This started in 4th grade. I don’t really remember how I got into it at the time but from 4th grade until 11th grade all I wanted to do with my life was act. I wanted to grow up and be an actress. I wanted to be on Broadway! I took classes outside of school every year and had so much fun!

I faced some definite battles in my “acting career”. I have always had problems with memorization and well acting requires lots of line memorization. I spent so much time trying to remember my lines that getting to the actual acting part was sometimes hard. I struggled hard with it. The next hurdle in my acting career was my ability to sing. I hated singing! I took a couple of lessons and eventually became okay but anytime and audition required me to sing it was terrifying! I thought since I hated singing maybe film was the way to go. So I took a film class and I quickly realized it was not for me. On film you redo every scene until each one is right then some tech people put it all together or however that film magic works. Ha! I relished in the reward that the stage brought. Practicing a whole play until perfect and getting up in front of an audience and starting from the beginning and not stopping until the end. Having the audience cheer and congratulate you after. It’s incredible!

Here is a picture from my “traveling acting career” in which a group I was with traveled to San Fransisco and performed on Ghirardelli Square.

As I got into high school I became discouraged. I was never good enough to get the top parts in school and I struggled with myself and felt like I was never going to be good so I should just give up. I think also dating and being a teenager got in the way too.

So along the way in my acting career despite my dislike for singing I did pick up an instrument. That instrument was the cello. I started playing in 8th grade in school. I never felt like all I wanted to be was a cellist but I did really enjoy it and played until I graduated high school. I played less and less out of high school and then it became a rare thing for me to pick up my cello. I actually just sold it two years ago because I wasn’t playing it, needed the money and space in my house. Sold it to a girl in high school and I hope she is enjoying it. I did have some wonderful experiences with my cello. I played it in the musical Carousel at my high school and also was in the All State Orchestra in Colorado which is composed of the best orchestra students in the state.

So many years have gone by but I have never forgotten my cello and definitely never my passion for acting. I have thought about revisiting my passions. particularly in acting. So we’ll see but I know the passions from my past are not gone from my future.